Partners’ Thoughts on the First Year of the Project
Time flies and here we are,?well into the second year of the project. As it happens, every cycle comes to an end, we look back and think about what we have achieved during the last twelve months and what we expect from the year to come. This article provides an insight into the achievements, challenges and milestones of the partners during this first year. As we move forward, we also lay the groundwork for future efforts, recognising lessons learned and paving the way for even greater innovation and impact in the time that still lies ahead for the project.
We asked our partners about the progress made during the first year of the project, and their expectations for year two. This is what they said.
It was exciting for us to launch a new European project that will build an Extreme?Data analytics platform that brings together data storage systems and powerful computing?infrastructures by using supercomputers and cloud technologies. IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center , as the?coordinator, is responsible for the overall management of the project and strives for?its successful completion. We initiated all activities with the kick-off meeting?focusing on the overall coordination of all partners. The EXA4MIND Platform?architecture was drafted leveraging our application cases requirements from the?agriculture, automotive and health domains. In the second year of the project, we would like to introduce the first demonstration of application cases that will use all technologies of the EXA4MIND project.
IT4Innovations also started the activities of its scientific application case which focuses on the systematic improvement of molecular simulations and accuracy. We are quite optimistic about the progress made by the EXA4MIND project and?Automated Data Mining System for Systematic Improvement of Molecular Dynamics simulations?(ADAMS4SIMS)?task during its first year. The collaborative efforts and dedication of the team have resulted in significant achievements, laying a solid foundation for the project’s success in the coming years.
Looking ahead to year 2, our scientific application case goals include advancing our capabilities further. We plan to develop a preliminary version of a program for?automatic analyses, streamlining our workflow and enhancing efficiency. Simultaneously, we are working on a preliminary version of a comprehensive database for storing simulations, providing a robust platform for data management and retrieval. These initiatives will contribute significantly to the project’s overall success and pave the way for continued advancements.
The most important results and milestones in the first year have certainly been those related to co-design and architecture. It was mainly about a common understanding of the technical setting, and choosing the suitable systems. We are very happy that we progressed a great deal on that. We talked about data flow patterns, and our architecture principles, and we explored many different data management systems to be considered. Also, the first workflows from the application cases have been run at our supercomputing centres.
In year two, we will go beyond this get-to-know and deep exploration that we have done. We expect first application-specific data systems to be filled and utilised within compute-heavy workflows. It will be exciting to explore the performance and see new interfaces being implemented, e.g. Advanced Querying and Indexing System (AQIS). Going more into the special role of the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (BADW-LRZ), the data-management side, we have to evolve interfaces from database management systems to supercomputing systems and European data spaces. The more we achieve, the more time we have in year three to optimise systems and demonstrate performance gains in Extreme Data analytics – the ultimate goal of the project. Busy, but very promising times ahead!
In the first year of this project, TerraviewOS marked an important advancement for Terraview. Our Aquaview platform was launched, pioneering sensorless soil moisture analysis and prediction using satellite data.
Moving onto the second year of the project, we will increasingly integrate the data processing and modelling workflows used by Aquaview to leverage the HPC capabilities at IT4Innovations, accelerating our computing capabilities and exploring the benefits of natural language querying (NLQ) of our data.
Starting a new project is always exciting and challenging. Our first year has passed quickly with intense work on putting the requirements on the table and building a common technical language among the partners from various fields. Having made significant progress on these, Orta Do?u Teknik üniversitesi had a big step towards developing AQIS for exascale data processed on High Performance Computing (HPC)?systems. We have sketched the initial version of the infrastructure to handle the wide variety in the data model requirements for the application cases and have started working on a natural language-based querying solution as a unified interface.
Now that we have progressed well in collecting the requirements and started sketching the solutions, next year we will focus more on progressing the research aspects and the first version of the deployed modules. We look forward to the opportunity to witness a live system operating on HPC clusters, delivering significant contributions to our industry partners and we also hope to leverage large language models on specific use?cases & increase research efforts on certain types of databases. There are lots of challenges and excitement ahead of us!
2023 has been covered by key milestones such as the realisation of the LEXIS Platform connector in our Graphical User Interface and the refinement of the application case through the realisation of the data management plan and the NLQ request.
In 2024, Altrnativ is bringing more collaborators on?board to ensure consistency of data pipelines and realisation of the planned application case. This will allow the acceleration of the deliverables in the project.
As ?eské vysoké u?ení technické v Praze (CIIRC CTU), we are content with the progress in the project’s inaugural year. Our satisfaction stems from an effective collaboration with Valeo and other partners. Positive communication and impactful face-to-face meetings have been pivotal in guiding us toward successful outcomes.
This year, we will focus on sustaining a fruitful collaboration with Valeo, utilising their data to enhance our research endeavours. Additionally, we aim to distil our insights into a scientific paper, contributing disseminating of knowledge in our field.
During the first year of the project, 法雷奥 and Valeo.ai?accomplished all the goals targeted in the project plan. Great cooperation was set up with partners in the whole consortium. On top of that, Valeo?and Valeo.ai, in cooperation with?CIIRC CTU, submitted seven scientific papers to the top AI journals and conferences, out of which four were accepted and published (two journals, two conferences) and three are awaiting review (one journal, two conferences).
In 2024, the?most significant challenges for Valeo are collecting and processing the first petabyte of data. For Valeo.ai the main task is to continue training machine learning models for automatic data exploration and filling up the database with extracted information in cooperation with CIIRC CTU, and also keep publishing scientific?papers. Last but not least, Valeo, Valeo.ai and CIIRC CTU will create the first tools operating with AI models as well as smart database querying.
2023 being the first year of the project, a key achievement was to develop successfully a strong collaboration with all partners of the consortium. With this, EURAXENT has been in a position to start working on the technical specificities of the Key Exploitable Assets with the perspective of evaluating their exploitation paths and strategies.
In 2024, EURAXENT wants to develop with all partners an extensive exploitation plan, adapted to a target delivery of the project at TRL5, and prepare a supporting platform (EXAKI –? EXA4MIND kick-starter) for organisations (SMEs, Research & Academic teams, other EU funded projects, large industries and services suppliers, etc.) planning on capitalising on the results of EXA4MIND in order to develop further solutions.
The first year of the project has been really exciting for us as we, AUSTRALO , launched such an exciting and innovative project. Working with partners from all over Europe and from sectors such as industry, technology, automotive, and universities has helped us create a cohesive view of the complex field of Extreme Data so that we can communicate clearly and coherently to the general public and other relevant stakeholders. EXA4MIND is now an established brand and its communication channels are in full swing.
In 2024, we are focusing on strengthening our relationships with our stakeholders, potentially developing joint activities built upon our research synergies; expanding the community interested in the project; promoting EXA4MIND activity; and disseminating the research advancements and publications through our communication & dissemination?channels.
Meet the EXA4MIND External Advisory Board
The EXA4MIND External Advisory Board (EAB) aims to provide strategic advisory support to ensure that the EXA4MIND project evolves appropriately and pursues its objectives. It is crucial for the project to receive continuous feedback from experts in the field. EAB members will contribute to identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the project in the context of European priorities and challenges and will help connect the EXA4MIND project with other strategic initiatives.
The EXA4MIND EAB is formed by the following experts:
Alessandro Laio
Alessandro Laio?is a full professor in statistical and biological physics at the International School for Advanced Studies (Sissa), Trieste. He obtained a master’s degree in nuclear engineering in Turin and, in 1999, a PhD in condensed matter physics. His research mainly focuses on the development of techniques aimed at simulating rare events and meta-stability in complex many-body systems, such as phase transitions, chemical reactions and protein folding. One of his most important contributions in this field is metadynamics, an approach that allows efficient estimation of free energy in many dimensions. He is also working on the development of techniques for the analysis of complex data landscapes. In this field, he has developed Density Peak Clustering, an approach that has quickly become a popular tool for data analysis.
Wieland Brendel
In May 2022, Wieland Brendel joined the?Max-Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems as an independent group leader and is now a Hector Endowed Fellow at the ELLIS Institute Tübingen (since September 2023).?Brendel received his diploma in physics from the University of Regensburg (2010) and his PhD in computational neuroscience from the école normale supérieure in Paris(2014). He joined the University of Tübingen as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Matthias Bethge, became a principal investigator and team lead in the Tübingen AI Center (2018) and an Emmy Noether Group leader for robust machine learning (2020). He received the 2023 German Pattern Recognition Award for his substantial contributions to robust, generalisable and interpretable machine vision. Besides his research, Brendel co-founded a nationwide school competition (bw-ki.de), and a machine learning startup focused on visual quality control (layer7.ai, today:?maddox.ai).
Professor Yannis Manolopoulos
Professor Yannis Manolopoulos holds a 5-year diploma degree in electrical engineering (1981) and a PhD degree in computer engineering (1986), both from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Currently, he is a professor at the Open University of Cyprus, professor emeritus at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Member of Academia Europaea and Member of the Board of the University of Macedonia. His research interest focuses on data management. He has co-authored 6 monographs and 10 textbooks (in Greek), and 350+ journal and conference papers. He has received 18,000+ citations from 2,800+ distinct academic institutions from 100+ countries?(h-index=61 according to Google Scholar,?d-index=61 according to Research.com). He has also received 5 best paper awards from SIGMOD, ECML/PKDD, MEDES (2x) and ISSPIT conferences.?He supervised and acted as mentor for 27 doctoral graduates.
Mark van de Sanden
Mark van de Sanden works as an enterprise architect at SURF, which is the national organisation that provides ICT services for research and education in the Netherlands. He has over 25 years of experience in managing supercomputers and large-scale data infrastructures and has participated in European projects. He is a data and storage expert who has led the data services team for over ten years. In EUDAT, Mark is the technical coordinator and member of the secretariat. He has been involved in many EOSC-related projects (e.g. EOSC-Hub, EOSC Future, DICE, FAIRCORE4EOSC) and has been a member of the EOSC Architecture Working Group. Currently, he is a member of the EOSC Association Task Force on Technical Interoperability of Data and Services.
Advancement in Molecular Dynamics Simulation
In November 2023, our EXA4MIND consortium member Michal Otyepka (IT4Innovations), in collaboration with researchers from the Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Czech Advanced Technology and Research Institute, published a journal paper with the title 'Simple Adjustment of Intra-nucleotide Base-phosphate Interaction in OL3 AMBER Force Field Improves RNA Simulations'.
Discover more here.
Participation in International ?Events
EXA4MIND at the European Big Data Value Forum 2023
An important event for the European community interested in Big Data and artificial intelligence took place in the city of Valencia from 25 to 27 October. The European Big Data Value Forum (EBDVF), organised by the Big Data Value Association, was hosted under the auspices of the Spanish European Council presidency in collaboration with the European Commission and local partners.?EXA4MIND was represented by its team and management, showing its commitment to the European Big Data community.
Discover more here.
EXA4MIND Project Promoted at the Biggest HPC Event of the Year
The 35th international conference focused on high-performance computing, networking, storage, and analysis - SC23 - was held from 12 to 17 November at the Colorado Convention Centre in Denver, USA. Its theme ‘I am HPC’ attracted over 14,000 HPC professionals and offered space to 438 exhibitors from all around the world. EXA4MIND had the opportunity to highlight its activities, and the visitors to the IT4Innovations booth had the chance to win valuable prizes, and get an insight into the project.
Discover more here.
New Launch: EXA4MIND YouTube Channel
Dive into the heart of cutting-edge data analytics and supercomputing with EXA4MIND’s new YouTube channel. Our YouTube channel is a window into the latest progress of the project to develop an Extreme Data Analytics Platform to enable advanced supercomputer data analytics and automated data management with support for integration by design with EOSC and European data spaces. There, you will find videos on the progress of our application cases, interviews with the professionals who make EXA4MIND possible, and much more content on the daily work of the scientific and technological teams behind the project.
Visit EXA4MIND’s YouTube channel now and subscribe to get a front-row seat to the data revolution.
Campaign: Faces of EXA4MIND
Involving top talent from prestigious universities and research centres, small and medium-sized enterprises and industry, ten partners from six countries have joined forces to make EXA4MIND a reality and create a unique Extreme Data analytics platform by 2026.?
With the series ‘Faces of EXA4MIND’ we want to introduce the people who work every day to achieve our ambitious goal: Building a platform for Extreme Data that enables advanced data analytics on supercomputers and automated data management with support for integration by design with EOSC and European data spaces.
Jan Martinovi? (IT4Innovations)
We introduce you Jan Martinovi? from?IT4Innovations and project coordinator of EXA4MIND. ‘In the project we would like to help society, researchers and industry to work with Big Data and to provide to them an Extreme Data analytics platform’, he explains when asked about EXA4MIND’s main aim.
Watch his interview here.
Stephan Hachinger?(BADW-LRZ)
We present Stephan Hachinger from Leibniz Supercomputing Centre?and science and co-design coordinator of EXA4MIND. ‘I am trying to give the design process for all our technical systems a good direction in communication with our application case partners’, he explains when asked about his role within the project.
Watch his interview here.